This invention relates in general to certain new and useful improvements in animal characterizations and, more particularly, to character figures having articulatable body components.
There are a number of commercially available toy characters which include a torso portion having movable arms and legs. Generally, these toy character figures are designed for preschool children. More specifically, the manufacturers of such character figures produce each individual character with a specific design to depict a certain occupation or activity. Consequently, when it is desired to produce a similar character of modified activity or occupation, it is necessary to produce an entirely new character figure.
Another serious drawback of these commercially available characterization figures is that the various extremities, such as the arms and legs, are connected to a torso section in such manner that they are capable of being easily removed, and this is particularly pronounced when the extremities are pivotally secured. In this case, it has been observed that it is necessary to secure the extremities to the torso with at least a 25-pound pull resistance in order to prevent preschool children from pulling the extremities from the torso section of the figure. However, most of the commercially available characterization figures cannot be designed in order to provide this resistive force and which thereby leads to an inherent disadvantage from a safety point.
In recent years, there have been several regulations and social pressures regarding the safety of such characterization figures, due to the fact that preschool children often remove the extremities of such characterization figures and may attempt to swallow such various components which leads to severe injury to the children.
In order to overcome this problem, various manufacturers of preschool characterization figures have attempted to resort to production of such characters which are essentially integral in their structure and thereby prohibit articulatable movement of the various extremities on the torso section of the body. Even moreso, in order to comply with various safety regulations, the producers of these figures have resorted to increased thickness of the body components, thereby leading to increased costs.
The present invention obviates these and other problems in the provision of a toy characterization figure for preschool children with the extremities connected to the body so as to resist being pulled from the body or torso. In essence, the present invention provides a two-piece torso with the extremities having connector sections at their inner ends which fit within apertured portions in the torso to prevent inadvertent or unauthorized removal therefrom.
It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to provide a unique toy animal characterization figure with articulatable body components which are effectively incapable of being removed by preschool children.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an animal characterization figure of the type stated which can be constructed by conventional plastic molding techniques at relatively low costs.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide animal characterization figures with articulatable body components, of the type stated, which include first and second mating torso sections and which are provided with apertures to receive extremities in such manner that they are relatively incapable of being removed by preschool children.
It is another salient object of the present invention to provide a method of producing animal characterization figures with articulatable body components and which characterization figures are highly safe for preschool children.
With the above and other objects in view, our invention resides in the novel features of form, construction, arrangement and combination of parts presently described and pointed out in the claims.